Burial Rites

Agnes Magnúsdóttir was the last person to be publicly beheaded in Iceland in 1829.  This novel is a fictional account of her role in killing two men and burning down the house where they slept.  Her final days are spent with a family on a farm, helping with housework and being counselled by a Lutheran priest to repent.  Most striking was Hannah Kent’s depiction the very cold and desolate winters of Iceland. I was left feeling that the church and the climate must have had a massive hold on poor people in Iceland in the 19th century.